“Robber baron is a derogatory term applied to wealthy and powerful 19th century American businessmen. By the late 1800’s, the term was typically applied to businessmen who used what were considered to be exploitative practices to amass their wealth. These practices included exerting control over national resources, accruing high levels of government influence, paying extremely low wages, quashing competition by acquiring competitors in order to create monopolies and eventually raise prices, and schemes to sell stock at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors in a manner which would eventually destroy the company for which the stock was issued and impoverish investors. The term combines the sense of criminal (“robber”) and illegitimate aristocracy (“baron”).”

How closely do you think this fits our current situation? What do you think can be done about it?